The new executive director of the Latvian national airline airBaltic, Erno Hilden, has accumulated nearly 400,000 euros in two banks, according to his declaration as a public official submitted to the State Revenue Service upon taking office.
As of December 1, 2025, he had cash savings of 111,012 euros in the Finnish bank Bank Pirkanmaa, and 3,056,141 Swedish kronor (approximately 284,000 euros) in the Swedish SEB Bank.
At the same time, Hilden's liabilities amounted to 458,954 euros.
He also issued two loans exceeding 20 minimum monthly salaries, specifically for 140,000 and 54,000 euros.
At the beginning of December last year, he owned financial instruments worth 365,049 euros. Hilden indicated that he has investments in both private pension funds and life insurance savings.
Hilden owned an apartment in Tampere (Finland), as well as co-owned two buildings in Tuusula and Kangasala (Finland). Additionally, he rented an apartment in Riga.
He also owned three cars — two BMWs (from 2017 and 2024) and a 2017 Chevrolet. He also owned two motorcycles — a Honda (2018) and a Harley Davidson (2022), a BRP Can-Am ATV (2022), a Marino boat (2019), and a Sea-Doo jet ski (2024).
Hilden stated that he is a board member of two companies registered in Finland — Hilden Invest and Habitus Hilden.
As previously reported, Hilden began his duties as the executive director of airBaltic on December 1, 2025.
It was also reported that on April 7, 2024, the supervisory board of airBaltic decided to relieve the chairman of the board and executive director of the airline, Martin Gauss, who had held this position since November 1, 2011.
In 2024, the consolidated loss of the airBaltic group amounted to 118.159 million euros compared to a profit the previous year. The group's turnover increased by 11.9% compared to 2023, reaching 747.572 million euros.
At the end of August 2025, the German national airline Lufthansa became a shareholder of airBaltic. Currently, the state of Latvia owns 88.37% of the company's shares, Lufthansa owns 10%, financial investor Danish entrepreneur Lars Tusén and his company Aircraft Leasing 1 own 1.62%, and 0.01% is owned by other holders. The company's share capital is 41.819 million euros.
After the initial public offering (IPO) of airBaltic, the size of Lufthansa's stake will be determined by the market price of the IPO. The terms of the deal stipulate that Lufthansa will own at least 5% of the company's capital after the IPO.
On August 30, 2024, the Latvian government agreed that after the IPO, the state must retain at least 25% plus one share of airBaltic's capital. On August 19, 2025, the government also decided that Latvia, like Lufthansa, would make comparable investments of 14 million euros in airBaltic prior to a possible IPO.
